Adapting to local climates

Susan Chandler, Tribune staff reporterCHICAGO TRIBUNE

If you walk into the Crate & Barrel store on Michigan Avenue, you'll find a summertime assortment of green-, blue- and orange-striped "Cozumel" pitchers and bowls. If you walk into a Crate & Barrel in Washington, D.C., you'll see the same items. Ditto in California or New York.

That's the way most home accessories stores do things, whether it's Restoration Hardware Inc., Pottery Barn or Northbrook-based Crate & Barrel. The same items are carried everywhere, whether a store is in trendy San Francisco or more conservative Atlanta.

Although rarely mentioned as a retail maverick, Sears, Roebuck and Co. is breaking that mold. Its two new Great Indoors home decorating and remodeling stores that opened recently in west suburban Lombard and northwest suburban Schaumburg will feature some items geared to Chicagoans' tastes and preferences.

The merchandise assortment is sprinkled with nautical themes, a nod to the area residents who go sailing or have second homes on lakes in Wisconsin and Michigan. There is "Nantucket" dinnerware and wall tiles decorated with fish. There are cocktail napkins with lighthouses and clocks shaped like sailboats.

The woods offered for kitchen cabinets will be heavy on traditional choices such as oak, cherry and maple, which Sears found to be local favorites.

But when it comes to faucets, research shows Chicagoans favor a clean, modern look, so the Great Indoors will be carrying a larger selection of contemporary fixtures than in some of its other stores.

Tailoring products by region is a smart strategy, said Cynthia Cohen, president of Strategic Mindshare, a retail consulting firm with offices in Florida, New York and California.

"It is difficult to pull off, but it pays off in higher sales per square foot," Cohen said. "The more targeting you do, your inventory turns faster and your gross margin is higher."

To be sure, the Great Indoors stores here--the fifth and sixth of their kind to open--will look much like clones of their siblings in Denver, Dallas, Detroit and Scottsdale, Ariz. Kitchen stoves run the gamut from $650 Kenmores to $5,700 Vikings. Bathroom vanities range from $50 white porcelain pedestals to $4,700 wood cabinets.

Accessories cover the territory between dragonfly hooks for keys to framed prints of French cocktails. And the stores offer the same remodeling services, helping with everything from project design to installation.

But a lot of research and effort has gone into picking out special items and looks that appeal to local residents. The Great Indoors 60-member buying staff talked to local interior designers, held focus groups and interviewed suppliers about what products were popular here.

That kind of effort has been present from the beginning when the first store opened in suburban Denver in early 1998.

In Denver, the Great Indoors offers lots of slate and stone flooring, and redwood cabinetry, popular looks in rugged mountain locales. A Denver artist teaches classes on how to make handmade wallpaper and do faux wall painting.

In the Great Indoors stores in Scottsdale and Dallas, the products feature a Southwestern flair with lots of cowboy and desert motifs.

Of course, such micromarketing efforts aren't new to retailing. Apparel retailers such as J.C. Penney Co. have tweaked their assortments according to demographics and location for years. In the general merchandise category, Target Corp. is a leader in tailoring its mix so that stores on opposite ends of the same city offer different merchandise.

But the strategy is still cutting edge in the fast-growing home accessories segment of the business.

The Great Indoors isn't alone, however. Its major competitor, Home Depot's Expo Design Center, is tailoring about 20 percent of a store's merchandise to regional preferences, said Expo spokeswoman Melissa Watkins.

The Expo store scheduled to open in Lincoln Park next year will carry more items suited to loft and apartment living than stores in far west suburban Aurora and Schaumburg. Its Aurora store offers custom stained glass work by a Chicago firm. Another example: Its Miami store carries more outdoor tile than the Chicago area.

With its core chain of 860 Sears stores struggling to find its footing in a weak economy, Sears has a lot riding on the Great Indoors. Both Sears' revenue and profits could use the boost, and Wall Street is looking for a viable growth strategy before it puts a "strong buy" on the company's stock. All signs indicate the Great Indoors is on the right track.

The Denver store racked up an impressive $40 million in sales the first year it opened, $50 million the second year and $60 million last year. That's more than double what an average Sears store takes in.

The Great Indoors store in Denver is first among all Sears stores in sales of cooking appliances, custom window treatments, grills and ceiling fans.

The second Great Indoors, in Scottsdale, initially exceeded Denver's performance, taking in $50 million the first year.

The Chicago stores should do as well or better, Sears says.

The Schaumburg store is expected to draw affluent North Shore types as well as city dwellers. Sears anticipates the Lombard store will bring in a wide range of suburbanites and city dwellers with handy access to the Eisenhower Expressway.

Although both stores are holding official grand openings next Thursday, the Lombard store had been open on a "soft" basis since late last month. The Schaumburg store had a fancy kickoff party Wednesday night featuring food by Chicago's high-profile chef Charlie Trotter. It is scheduled to open for business Thursday.

In Lombard, traffic already is brisk. Shopper Pearl Draves can't say enough good things about the store, which she already has visited four times.

"I really love it. I like that you can compare everything right here," said Draves, who lives near Joliet but is building a new house in Frankfurt.

Of course, the Great Indoors will soon have a lot of competition. Expo will soon open another store across the street in Downers Grove from the Lombard store. Besides the planned Lincoln Park store, a fifth Expo will open in northwest suburban Vernon Hills in October.

But if Draves is any indication, the Great Indoors, which has more moderate-price items, should hold its own. "I like this better than the Expo in Aurora," she said. "The prices are right, and the service is better."